Can’t speak for the other places, but there is US immigration (at least, if not Customs too), staffed with US government officials, at both Dublin and Shannon airports in Ireland.
ETA: a lot of Americans seem to conflate Customs with Immigration. Immigration is about people: passport control; Customs is about the goods you bring with you. They work in concert on some things, but they are mostly separate institutions and control points, at least in the rest of the world.
I never get this hangup that (IME) mostly Americans have about losing their passports. Sure, I would not advocate it, but it’s not the end of the world. What you say about embassies is patently false. There’s only one thing you replace if you have lost it, and that is a passport; they don’t replace anything else as far as I’m aware. You are not a non-person without it, especially if you have other ways of proving your citizenship (travelers’ tip: upload copies of important files to yr email account/dropbox/other online accessible place).
Far, far dumber than losing your passport is to get involved in any sort of activity that can get you seriously injured or perhaps pregnant. If I had a kid, I’d much rather get a call that he or she had lost his/her passport, than that they got knocked up by some Mario in Milan, or that they got their ass kicked by Manuel in Madrid and are paralyzed from the neck down.
I’d be surprised if she was allowed into the boarding area, much less on the plane. Seeing the embassy might work, but it might end up being cheaper with her finding a hotel and you sending her passport back to her.
And yea, her sending her passport back is really, really, really clueless. That’s the ONE thing that you’re not supposed to lose while traveling with it, ever.
Opinons are getting less and less humble around here, I see…
You are from the EU. The EU is an internal travel area, you don’t need passports to travel within it if you are an EU citizen. Elsewhere if you do lose your passport you are superfucked. It can take days literally to get it replaced and if you are on visa, there is an even bigger hassel getting THAT replaced.
I did a similarly stupid thing once - drove from Denver to Dallas, plan was to spend a couple of days with friends in Dallas then fly to the UK for Christmas.
Didn’t realise that I’d brought my expired passport instead of the valid one until I checked in. Talk about a d’oh moment! My then-husband Fedexed the proper passport overnight because no way was I boarding the plane without it. This was pre-9/11; if anything I imagine they’re stricter now.
I’m curious what the outcome will be here…come back, OP! Hopefully your daughter gets to spend Christmas with you one way or another…
Why would lawyers be needed? Just to the Embassy and say you lost your passport.
Alternatively, if she just mailed it home, why not have someone just go overnight it back?
They aren’t even going to let her on the plane.
Haven’t gone anywhere. In fact, though I told her I’d be at the airport unless I heard otherwise, it seems to me smarter to stay here and wait for her to phone me, which she was going to do when she landed anyway. (I live about an hour from Newark). This way, I’ll have all the comforts of home, and a lot better access to the Internet.
As to Xmas, thanks, but both she and I are as atheistic as you get (though she did go to Scotland to study medieval religious texts), so it’s just another day of the year to us, though I would dearly love to spend it together.
Update–my celphone has a terse text-message from her, early this morning (around 8 AM, UK time): “Made it. Ten minutes flat.” From this, I conclude she got on the plane.
I guess I’m heading to the airport after all.
I did this once when I went to Jamaica but I was on a travel agency chartered plane and it was in the 80s. They let me in just with my driver’s license though they were shaking their heads…
Great news!
Would love to hear how she did it.
Will keep you posted. Heading out in a few minutes–just packing a little sustenance and some reading matter.
Guys, losing one’s passport isn’t nearly as serious as some of you are making it out to be. Not having a passport doesn’t turn anyone into a non-person, they aren’t “superfucked.” Yes, in some countries losing a passport can create a big headache, but even without a passport, a person is still entitled to assistance from one’s embassy, as required by consular treaties.
In some countries that conduct random passport checks on foreigners, it could lead to a pain in the ass. Britain ain’t one of those countries. In the realm of stupid things that one can do, losing one’s passport is probably on par with failing to renew a car registration on time. Not something that you want to do, but it happens all the goddamn time.
I would only conclude she “made it” to the airport.
One might suspect she parted ways with her passport because she wanted an excuse to stay there longer.
Sounds good – if she can call immediately upon touchdown you can be on your way quickly, at worst when she deplanes she’d be held up at the ICE station until her situation is cleared up to everyone’s satisfaction.
I thought Christmas was a secular holiday about gift giving and family gathering invented by Charles Dickens. Why wouldn’t an atheist view it as a notable holiday?
I am Spanish, living in the Netherlands. I was in the UK once, and I lost my passport there.
I had to get a letter from the Spanish embassy to be able to leave the UK. First I had to go to the police to report the loss, and with the police report I had to go to the Embassy, where they made a temporary document that allowed me to go back to my point of origin (in this case the Netherlands).
Without my passport, or this particular travel document, there was no way I was going to be able to leave the UK. I was able to board my plane with the letter, anyway, but I had extra questions from the border police both when I was leaving the UK and when I was entering the Netherlands.
(and, of course, once I was back home, I had to get a new passport asap from the Spanish embassy in the Netherlands!).
I very much doubt that the daughter of the OP has been able to board her plane, unless she managed to get a letter or some emergency travel document from the US embassy.
Losing your passport (especially if you don’t need a visa to stay for a while in the foreign country where you are) doesn’t leave you superfucked, but it is not a trivial matter, either. It can be the source of horrible headaches. If you need a visa to stay somewhere and you lose your passport, you are up shit creek. A German friend of mine lost his passport while in Russia and let me tell you – it was NOT fun at all.
Losing your passport is careless, not stupid. Purposefully mailing your passport home from a foreign country is idiotic.
I am so curious as to what possessed her to do that. It makes no sense at all to me. I am also very glad to hear that it looks like things will work out.
Instead of explaining the comparative use of passports to me like I’m a fucking moron, why don’t you try reading my post? Of course it’s a hassle, and very likely non-trivial especially in these days, and I never suggested otherwise. But it’s not like there’s shit tons of Americans stranded forever outside the US borders because they misplaced their passports. Sure it sucks, but it’s not the end of the world, and if you think losing your passport gets you superfucked than I wonder what you call it when you really land in trouble.
Does anybody remember those old Tarzan TV series episodes where the villian of day looses his passport and apparently its almost a death sentence? Almost as bad as the quicksand, alligators, rampaging elephants, boa constrictors, angry natives, or pirranhas.